AD’s email touts spending on west end-zone project

ATHENS — In an email to UGA donors, athletics director Greg McGarity touted spending toward facilities projects, including the Sanford Stadium west end-zone project.

McGarity said there is now more than $18 million available for the $63 million end-zone project, which includes new locker rooms and a recruiting area.

The project was announced and approved in February, but it’s not clear how much of that $18 million has been donated since then. When the school dedicated the $30.2 million indoor facility that same day in February, the school confirmed that it had received well over the $30.2 million cost through fundraising. So funds could be re-directed toward the end-zone project, as well as other smaller projects.

Construction on the endzone project began “immediately” after UGA commencement last week, McGarity told donors in the email. The work will continue this summer, then “will cause some hardship throughout” the coming football season, McGarity added, but said he was “confident our temporary plans for navigating these areas on game day will be successful.”

The project is expected to be completed for the start of the 2018 season.

McGarity’s email appeared aimed at criticism that not enough money is spent on facilities, even while the school has just over $77 million in reserve funds available. A presentation is planned in two weeks at the athletic-board meeting to further explain the reserve-fund situation. McGarity declined comment until then.

In his email to donors, McGarity touted $81.14 million of facilities work, most of it the end-zone project, but also previously approved work on Stegeman Coliseum ($7.94 million), the golf course ($4.35 million), the soccer complex ($4.575 million) and the track ($1.275 million.)

“We are using a blend of Athletic Association reserves and private support via the Magill Society for these projects,” McGarity wrote in the email to donors. “What started out as an entirely new way of generating funds for facility enhancements in September 2015, has been a remarkable story in itself. To date, the Magill Society has generated over $50 million which will be directed towards facility improvements — the vast majority earmarked to the football-related projects.”

When the plans for the indoor facility were unveiled in September 2015, the school said it would seek half of the $30.2 million price tag via fundraising, and would pay for the other half out of reserves. But McGarity also said at the time that if more than $15.1 million was raised, that those funds would be put toward other projects. As McGarity’s message indicated, the leftover funds after the indoor facility — at least $20 million — are being put toward the end-zone project.

Greg McGarity told donors work on the project had begun.